The porcelain dish, its shape ever so slightly askew, has deep rounded sides rising to a somewhat thickened rim. It is supported on a low beveled foot surrounding the recessed base where grit has adhered to the clear colorless glaze that covers the entire piece save for the foot rim on which the dish was fired. The spacious interior is divided into two zones, one decorated in underglaze-cobalt blue and the other left plain. The decorated half is also divided into two equal parts, one side with a scroll supporting a single blossom in white reserve against a blue ground. This organic, rhythmic design is in stark contrast to the rigid, geometric, swastika-diaper pattern filling the opposite side. A quatrefoil panel enclosing a white rabbit appears to pierce through the two sides of the design opening a window they share but, at the same time, the panel serves as a buckle forming a link between them. The cobalt blue is strong and bright, applied in an irregular wash to form a background for the white-reserve scroll and held in restraint to produce the diaper pattern that appears as if executed in an outline-and-wash technique. The white rabbit is successfully silhouetted against a similar white ground by means of the halo-like blue outline that surrounds it. The glaze exhibits some imperfections in the form of minuscule dark spit outs. A few minor firing cracks are present in the foot and base. The glaze flaking in small areas from the mouth rim (an effect known as mushikui, “insect nibbled mouth”) and the kiln grit adhering to the underside are characteristics we expect to encounter in the presence of kosometsuke.
The rabbit is the fourth sign of the Chinese zodiac and is considered the creature most likely to bring good fortune as well as fertility and longevity, while its efficacy is believed to extend far beyond all of that in scope and complexity. In Chinese lore the rabbit is cohort of the Moon Goddess, Chang E, and is often depicted in their heavenly lunar abode with mortar and pestle at hand pounding medicinal herbs into the elixir of immortally. In Japan the rabbit also conveys a sense of cleverness and ambition as well and, of course, is seen pounding mochi. The rabbit was frequently portrayed in Song dynasty ceramics, most frequently in Cizhou wares (figs. 1-2) and makes a very strong showing again in the porcelains produced during the late Ming for the Japanese market (figs. 3-4). While the present composition is quite unusual, as least one other like it has been published (fig. 5).
The Japanese have a term for the split composition seen on these two rabbit-decorated dishes: katami-gawari (“alternating sides”). Originating in textile design of the Kamakura period (AD 1185-1333), and a technique also associated with Japanese lacquer décor, it was reborn in the ceramics created at the end of the 16th and into the 17th century known as Oribe.1 The ware was named after the great tea master Furuto Oribe (AD 1543-1615) whose unconventional, audacious taste is reflected in these remarkable ceramics. An example of Oribe ware exhibiting a split composition is a square dish in the Tokyo National Museum (fig. 6). One side is dominated by the reddish clay with a painted geometric design and the other covered with classic Oribe green glaze. However, the Oribe aesthetic promoted asymmetry, whimsey, a sense of drama, theatrics, and surprise, providing a jolt to the eye. The Chinese artisan, in good faith to his tradition, introduced symmetry, regularity, control, and the predictable within the non-traditional composition, an idea and style that would have been introduced to the Chinese and inspired by the tea society in Japan being serviced
Also to note is the extensive use of patterns on the present dish, not uncommon on kosometsuke wares which share a penchant for floral scrolls in white reserve and a variety of diaper patters, including the swastika of the present dish (fig. 7). Further, a variety of asymmetrical patterns were also in play (fig. 8). Such features, however, along with more careful and finer craftsmanship characterizing some of these vessels, are more typical of a Shonzui aesthetic, Shonzui ware following and supplanting to some degree kosometsuke ware towards the end of the Ming. However, the formation of the base, the kiln grit, and the flaking of the glaze from the mouth rim are undeniable features of kosometsuke. The Japanese author of one of the labels on the box describes the piece as kosometsuke whereas a second label has the writer going in favor of the décor rather than technical aspects of the dish and identifies the piece as Shonzui. Welcome to our world!
1. See Miyeko Murase, ed., Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth Century Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition catalogue, New York, 2004, pp. 13-14.
Fig. 1: Cylindrical jar with sgraffiato rabbit décor, Jin dynasty, 13th century AD, Cizhou Kiln Museum, Cixian, after Ye Zhemin, ed., Zhongguo Cizhouyao, Shijiazhuang City, 2009, no. 059.
Fig. 2: Octagonal pillow with sgraffiato rabbit décor, Northern Song period, 12th century AD, Tianjin History Museum, Tianjin, after Ye Zhemin, ed., Zhongguo Cizhouyao, Shijiazhuang City, 2009, no. 376.
Fig. 3: Kosometsuke dish with rabbit design, late Ming dynasty, AD 1625-1635, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, Effie B. Allison Collection, after Julia Curtis, Trade Taste & Transformation: Jingdezhen Porcelain for Japan:1620-1645, New York, 2006, no. 95, p. 114.
Fig. 4: Kosometsuke dish with rabbit design, late Ming dynasty, 17th century AD, after Masahiko Kawahara, Ko-sometsuke, Tokyo, 1977, monochrome plates, no. 633, p. 160.
Fig. 5: Kosometsuke rabbit-decorated dish, late Ming period, 17th century AD, after Masahiko Kawahara, Ko-sometsuke, Tokyo, 1977, color plates, no. 133, p. 163.
Fig. 6: Square Oribe stoneware dish, Momoyama period, early 17th century AD, Tokyo National Museum, after Miyeko Murase, ed., Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth Century Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition catalogue, New York, 2004, no. 73, p. 155.
Fig. 7: Kosometsuke square dish with floral and swastika border design, late Ming dynasty, AD 1635-1645, Private Collection, after Julia Curtis, Trade Taste & Transformation: Jingdezhen Porcelain for Japan: 1620-1645, New York, 2006, no. 91, p. 110.
Fig. 8: Kosometsuke dish with asymmetrical design, late Ming period, 17th century AD, after Masahiko Kawahara, Ko-sometsuke, Tokyo, 1977, color plates, no. 128, p. 157.
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